Friday, August 19, 2016

Making a Splash: The Amazing Kane, Man!

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! While Steve Ditko and John Romita are usually the best-remembered Spidey artists, we must never forget that none other than Gil Kane made his mark 'pon the Wall-Crawler's 'mazing mag. Over the course of three years (1970-1973) Kane penciled nineteen issues of Amazing Spider-Man (89-92, 96-105, 120-124), then came back for one more hoo-rah with ish 150 (August 1975). (And we're just talking Amazing, not Marvel Team-Up--already rapped about those splashes here--or Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1--which, Ol' Groove'll get around to one'a these days!) Whaddya say let's raise some web-slinging Kane, baby?

11 comments:

Thanks Groove - got most of these mags boxed up somewhere. Thanks for showing us these great Gil Kane splashes. Funny thing is, until Kane took over with issue #89 I only bought Spidey occasionally, when Gil turned I was buying it every month. Unbeatable!

Another excellent post Groove, now I must ask you to dig through your vast knowledge to help me answer a question. My memory isn't always that good (hate getting old) I remember a Spiderman issue, I believe it was an annual, all I remember is I think they are making a movie and some of the extras were wearing spider suits (not like Spiderman, but more like man sized spiders) any idea what this is or am I losing what little mind I have left? I have one more comic I can't place but I'll wait until a more appropriate post (it was a Batman issue) thanks in advance for any help.

Groove, I so dug the Kane ASMs; too young for Romita for the most part. I was stunned by 6-armed Spider Man and the lines Kane started drawing under people's noses e.g, when they met Kazar in 103 and 104. And Andru was no slouch when it came to either!

Kane was in peak form on Spidey, and Romita's inks kept the look of Romita's supporting cast while boasting of Kane's more daring anatomical angles of the human (and humanoid) body. Issue #123 is, in my book, an integral part of the death of Gwen Stacy storyline, showing the aftermath (a deceased Norman Osborn in the splash page, and, on later pages, his son Harry going through drug withdrawals, not to mention those intense circles around an emotionally distraught Peter Parker's eyes). It is an important denouement to issues 121-122. Dig? (as Spidey said to Luke Cage)

Good times those were. Given my age, Kane figured much more prominently into my ASM reading in my youth. I really remember the 100 - 102 issues and really grooved on the vampire, the lizard, and 6 arms. Around 103 - 104 I started asking why GK was always drawing the face with an upwards view so you could see the underside of the nose with lines drawn, so often, compared to other artists. IN particular I remember Stan's Soapbox asking readers if we preferred Kane or Andru as the Spidey artist (probably around 106?). Ross was no slouch at drawing SPidey either, to be sure. Cheers!

Kane and Romita together morphed into a very unique style that other inkers following were unable to top. Too bad John Romita's multiple duties at Marvel, including Art Director, prevented this from being the unbroken penciller/inker combination for the remainder of Mr. Kane's tenure on the book.

I always really dug those panels of Gwen sitting alone in her new apartment in #102. Kane was obviously highly influenced by television and films. Such panels were his equivalent of panning and pullback dollying. The influence is even more apparent in Savage. Decades later, and we're all still trying to figure out what Kris Krisofferson was doing on the splash page of #99, though.

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